In sunshine and a chilly two degrees, the Werkself Women dominated proceedings early on against the second division side but initially lacked ideas up front. The first real chance came in the eleventh minute – and it worked out brilliantly: Verena Wieder put Leverkusen 1-0 up. Bayer 04 had the clear majority of possession , always tried to find the right answer with their play and moved well when they were on the ball. However, there was a certain hesitancy in finishing in one or two situations.
On 35 minutes, Milena Nikolic played a long ball to Dóra and she doubled the lead at 2-0. And, five minutes later, the striker combined with her fellow Hungarian teammate Henrietta Csiszár to make it 3-0. Bocholt had a chance just before half-time with a shot that rolled along the bar but Anna Wellmann in goal would have made the save.
Feifel reshuffled his team for the second half by bringing on four fresh pairs of legs. And substitute Gianna Rackow carried on where her teammates had left off in the first 45 minutes. The 20-year-old exploited a mistake by the opposition keeper to score with a tap-in to put Leverkusen 4-0 up on the hour mark. Almost straight away, Csiszár had a shot into an empty net for the fifth goal.
Applause and celebration on the Leverkusen bench for Sofie Zdebel on 73 minutes. The homegrown player scored her first goal for the Bayer 04 Women with an impressive volley to put Bayer 04 6-0 ahead. Rackow rounded off the scoring at 7-0 when she put the ball through the Bocholt goalkeeper’s legs (83’)
“We wanted to dominate the game with solid possession and being constructive going forwards. We were able to build our attacks through the middle and central midfield. That worked well overall, also because the opposition gave us the opportunities,” said a happy Achim Feifel after the game but he can see the potential for improvement in converting chances: “There were a lot of clear-cut chances where we should have done better. Overall, this friendly was better than the game against Werder Bremen last week.“
In the final test before the league restart, Feifel used players who had less minutes during the first half of the season. “We’ve got a big injury list and we have to compensate for that. Every individual player has to up their game. We don’t want to relax after the first half of the season with what we’ve achieved but instead carry on being successful in the Bundesliga.
First half: Wellmann – Sahlmann, Turanyi, Vinken, Kempe, Wirtz, Wieder, Kögel, Zeller, Csiszár, Nikolic
Second half: Klink – Rackow, Matysik, Marti, Büchner, Reger, Zdebel, Garofalo, Turanyi, Wirtz, Zeller
Goals: 1-0 Wieder (11’), 2-0 Zeller (35’), 3-0 Zeller (40’), 4-0 Rackow (60’), 5-0 Csiszár (60’), 6-0 Zdebel (73’), 7-0 Rackow (83’)
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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"In every ending lies a new beginning" is a well-known saying. This phrase has probably never been more apt at Bayer 04. After winning the Bundesliga in 2023/24 and finishing as runners-up in 2024/25, the summer was the most eventful ever in terms of transfers. Over ten players and the coach, including the coaching staff, left the club. A lot of the heroes of the double-winning side began a new chapter. It was the end of an era. And at the same time the beginning of a new, very exciting and promising chapter for Leverkusen. The Werkself welcomed more than a dozen new arrivals, including experienced title-winners and young talents, to build a new "foundation for a successful team capable of winning titles" under the Bayer Cross, as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. A new spirit, a new hunger, a new story was to be created. Bayer04.de looks back at the first few months of this story and the final act of the preseason.
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43 points at the end of the last Bundesliga season were not only more than ever before for the Bayer 04 Women, but also led to a record fourth-place finish. That was followed by a Hinrunde with many more victories, but also some setbacks. In an interview with bayer04.de, sporting director Achim Feifel takes stock at the end of the year.
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With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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A record-breaking year ends for the Bayer 04 Women. Fourth place, 13 wins and 43 points in the 2024/25 campaign - the Werkself have never been so good in the Bundesliga. Coach Roberto Pätzold's team also had plenty of reasons to celebrate in the first half of the new Bundesliga season - although there were also a few disappointments. A look back at 2025 for the Bayer 04 Women’s team.
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